APRIL 2022

Hello everyone.  The weather is crappy here also.  Just heard the dreaded word SNOW mentioned on TV.  Thunder, hail, rain and maybe snow.  Enough already...

Happy belated birthday Beech.  Hope it was a fun day.

ELLEN:  Congrats on ditching the walker and healing quickly.

ARK:  I'm sure the western saddle was a foreign object to you and Ivan.  It is a world of difference between English & Western riding.

GRAYMARE:  Enjoy that wild little puppy dog.  

George decided we are taking down the fence around the garden.  Hoorrayyy no garden this year.  Giving the fence to our neighbor and she said she will keep us in fresh veggies all summer.  That's a great trade off.

My friend Ashley is still with us, barely hanging on.  Staring into pneumonia, she is on the Palliative Care Floor and they don't treat pneumonia, so her days are numbered or so they tell us.  

Have a blessed weekend.

I've watched sports all day...............The races seemed like all talking and very little racing.  I enjoyed
seeing the old KING of the tracks, the appaloosa lead horse working at Aqueduct.  He was the best horse
there.  I also liked the name of the horse that ran 3rd in the Wood Memorial............LOL,
Skippylongstocking.  What a great name.

Tiger Woods tried very hard but looked whooped after walking the 6 mi course.  Scotty Scheffler
is a great golfer at 25 yrs old.

Baseball, track, & basketball ran a bad 3rd in sports today.

Nell E Belle is still the best sport in our house.

Still praying for Ukraine............

I've watched sports all day too. The horse racing started at 1:00 and ran until 7:00. Then NASCAR started and is still going.
It's been cold all day and spitting snow now and then. Not a day to go out.

I hope everyone had a good Palm Sunday......our service was very nice.

Oh boy, Nelle got soaked today with the emptying of water barrels.......she LOVES water........so have all
the dogs here except for Louie........Well, I'll get used to it and make her hang out outside until
she's dry.

Everyone have a good evening.

Maybe the next time Nell gets wet would be a good time for her to learn about a hair dryer.

That's what I used ELLEN. She loved it.

Graymare, she's going to be like the dog in the shower head commercial. He loves a bath so much that he finds lots of different ways to get dirty. Nell will be enjoying all the water and the getting dry.

Hi gang,  

Nothing new here but this morning was a mess............I lost my wallet.  Well, not really,
just misplaced.  I looked and looked everywhere until I figured out I left it in my walker.  I took it to
church on Sunday and forgot about it there.  The parking lot is big at church so I took
it with me.  I was starting to panic as the No Waste Grindings was going to deliver at 0930.
So, I paid with pride.

It's interesting.  I don't remember my walker at all, and only use it when the parking lot is big.
Therefore it's a pain in the butt........can't complain tho, because when it's needed I'm privileged
to have it.

Today was a good day, hope it was for you, too.

Keep praying for Ukraine..............and Prescription drug prices going up.  I have a couple of friends
that it's really affecting.

It is so scary to misplace a wallet or purse. So far..... I've never lost one without finding it shortly after. I've been very lucky. That's why I always carry a purse with a cross body strap.

GRAYMARE:
Glad you found your wallet! That is a scary thing to lose. I lost the electronic key fob to our truck the month I broke my leg three years ago. I looked and looked for it. I finally decided I lost it while at the physical therapist. When we went to replace it, and thank goodness we had two of them, we found out the key fob cost almost $400!! No way, I didn't want to pay that for a key fob. TVs cost less than that. I decided to just use a key, which cost $75 all by itself. A year later I found the key fob stuck in a crevice in the truck. You can believe I guard that darn key fob like it is made of gold. And it practically is.


We went to rent a bike for a week for Donnie today. He is interesting in getting a bike. We were going to go on a ride on the New River Trail with the bike and with Ivan to celebrate our 48th anniversary. Well, the bike didn't fit Donnie. It killed his knee. He thinks one with a different size pedal shank may work, but tomorrow's plan is changed. I am riding Ivan at Pandapas Pond with friends and he is going to visit all the bike shops around. I guess we'll go out for dinner. I hope he can find a suitable bike to buy.

We still have the bikes we bought before we got married. They are 49 years old! They've been hanging from the ceiling of our garage for over 20 years and in fairly decrepit shape. We had such fun with those bikes. Wish we had that energy now.

GRAYMARE so glad you found your wallet. Over the years I have come close to losing my purse twice. Once at a Walgreens when they still had a photography department. I left my wallet on the counter and thankfully the clerk spotted it and held on to it. And the second time at Walmarts. I actually left my purse in the cart when I took to cart out to the car to unload my bags. I left my purse in the cart when I put the cart in the cart corral and just walked away from it. I didn't realize it until I got home. I drove like a mad woman back to the store and my purse was still sitting in the cart in the cart corral. I was so fortunate.

Spring came for a visit on Sunday. It was sunny and beautiful. Then it went away again. Yesterday it rained and the horses now have small lakes to splash through. Fortunately I have sandy soil so it will go away in a day or two. This morning it's sunny. Hopefully the sun will stick around for a while. My daffodils are blooming but I thing the city was being overly optimistic when they planted pansies in the planters around town. My guess is they will be replanting flowers sometime after Mother's day.

Whew! Strong winds today. White caps on the lake and neighbors' patio furniture blowing around.
We went to supper this evening at a new place here on the lakes. Good food and very nice decor for a lake place.

Happy Good Friday...

Our weather is crazy, we had a couple of in the 70's days that quickly turned into the 30's at night. Spring is right around the corner...George had to mow grass already...that's a sign for sure.

GRAYMARE: Glad you found your wallet. That is a frightening experience.

ARK: My friend Shirley in FL has one of those electric bikes. She loves it. I hope Donnie finds one that works for him.

My friend Ashley is still hanging on. Sad to see her in that condition. Our favorite Pastor passed away unexpectedly. He had been paralyzed for 10 years after a botched neck surgery, he was a fighter too never allowed anything to dampen his spirits. septic shock...his celebration of life will be on Monday.

Have a blessed Easter weekend.

This morning is bright and sunny and clear. And cold. At least it looks pretty.
Neighbor/Handyman Kent is doing a bunch of little jobs for me this morning. Some of them I could do myself if I was a bit more mobile. It's so good to have him. He does a great job and doesn't charge very much. I'm happy to pay him to do things.

That wicked Peep.


Donnie has been to every bike shop within a reasonable distance. Nothing fits exactly, so he is ordering a device that can attach to the peddle crank to change the length of the crank. My ride on Ivan on our anniversary was notable because I managed to stay on. Ivan's first move was to try to dash down the very steep, rocky, dirt pathway leading onto the trail. I came within a smidgen of coming off. After that, he wasn't so bad, but it still took four miles to calm him down to reasonable.....sigh....I am not sure why he is back into dragon mode, but the past two rides have been an effort on my part. We were with new horses both rides. Ivan wanted to be far out in front of them, so not much gabbing with friends for me. Hope springs eternal that he will calm down for the next one. He is great at home in the arena...without other horses he doesn't know nearby.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!!

He is Risen! Happy Easter.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!

Yep. Snow this morning.

So far, ARK, my friend is #1 out of 268 in the viral Tevis Cup......she is so excited.  She's just a kid at 52
and can ride a lot, and does.

Nothing new here.......we have 2 wild fires here in AZ.  One has exploded outside of Flagstaff.  It's gone from 2000
acres to 3000............OMG.  Pray for our state.

Addendum: Fire is up to 6000 acres by 6P

Also, continue to pray for Ukraine.

Hmmmm, well something screwy has happened to the photos on this forum.  They seem to have disappeared.  I can't get a new logo photo to load up and the pix from the entire month of April seem to be missing.   Hopefully they will fix this.  I don't think this problem has ever occurred before.  Stay tuned, I guess.


GRAYMARE:
 Your friend is doing great with her Tevis ride!  So far I have nine miles and am 2/3s the way down the list of riding results.  Hopefully I will get in more rides after today's cold weather goes away.  It actually was snowing this morning.  It was so cold and extremely windy all day.  Yuck.   I hope to get a couple more miles in this week and Friday I have a six mile ride at Pandapas Pond planned.  

 I sincerely hope those fires are contained fast.  How scary.  My family visited the Flagstaff area in 1970 and camped a few days there.  It was very pretty, we were in the woods.  


TRUDY:
 How is your friend?  

ELLEN:
  Dancing yet?  How do you feel?  

I will try to post a photo here and see if it goes.... Nope. Photos are not working.

Ark, it looks like the photos are working again. Love the crazy socks on the horse. LOL

I hope they can get the fires under control quickly.

I'm doing much better, thanks. I've been doing PT for two weeks to make me stronger. The walking part is improving quickly. Because my stamina is nearly non-existant after holding down the sofa for 5 weeks, I didn't go to my relatives for Easter. We have two graduations coming up at the end of May and I'll be there with bells on.

ARK, you have to remember the climate here is riding perfect right now. And, AZ is a goldmine for riding trails.
I will talk to her at the end of the week and ask if she has gained any more miles.

Meanwhile, HAPPY TRAILS..............

LOL, cool sox on that horse.............

More progress. I went to Walmart today to return two rugs I had ordered. I'm not quite ready to tromp all over the store yet so I walled into the store and then used one of their riding scooters. Returned the rugs, found another one I like, and bought milk.
After I got home the neighbor had asked another guy from the neighborhood to use his skidsteer to pull out some bushes that have been there for at least 60 years. They didn't come out easily, but Ted won. It takes very little to entertain me. LOL

Oh, good. The pix are back! Don't know what happened with that.

Are those the cutest socks on that horse, or what?

ELLEN:
Good for you! Glad you are able to go to the store when you want to now! Donnie used those electric machines to get around WalMart, too, when his knee was so bad that even walking a little hurt. Actually, I did, too, when I broke my leg. Handy devices.

GRAYMARE:
I am up to 10 miles now! I should get another six miles in tomorrow when I take Ivan to Pandapas Pond. Donnie trimmed Ivan's feet this afternoon and he is ready to go.

Daisy gave us a scare this morning, we thought she might be trying to colic. She was pokey, didn't want to eat, and we couldn't hear gut sounds. No temp, no rolling. She is an eating machine, so when she doesn't eat, we worry. I called out the vet from Va Tech and they came in about an hour. By that time, Daisy was eating. The vet gave her a good look and we decided whatever it was had passed. Since she was there, Areion and Ivan got their yearly shots and Coggins. The others will get theirs on May 5th when they were scheduled. Daisy has been eating well all the rest of the day. Thank goodness.

You're getting there ELLEN...................woohoo!

Did you all see the picture of the Queen today with her two white horses/ponies?  It's a beautiful
picture........she was in a black dress & coat, horses were white and her hair is white also.........
heavens, she's 96............

Everyone have a good evening.............still praying for Ukraine.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-10735905/Queen-poses-beloved-fell-ponies-new-photo.html

That's a great photo.  I was 7 years old, but I remember when Elizabeth became queen.  I felt sorry for her that her father died.  As soon as I learned that she loved horses, I was a fan.  
When the pandemic hit, it was the first time in 75 years that she didn't attend Ascot.  I loved seeing her arriving in a carriage.